Indians on moon soon! Govt OK’s Rs 10K cr

India will send a three-member team to space for seven days as part of the Gaganyaan project which will entail a cost of Rs 10,000 crore.

The ambitious project, which was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Independence Day speech, was approved by the Union Cabinet in its meeting on Thursday night.

If successful, India will become the fourth country in the world to send a manned mission to the outer space. So far only the USA, Russia and China have send manned mission in the outer space.

Briefing about the outcome of the Cabinet meeting, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the Gaganyaan Mission is expected to be undertaken by 2022 and India has already inked pacts with Russia and France for assistance in the ambitious project. The testing for the mission will start in December 2020.

“A human-rated GSLV Mk-lll will be used to carry the orbital module which will have necessary provisions for sustaining a 3-member crew for the duration of the mission. The necessary infrastructure for crew training, realization of flight systems and ground infrastructure will be established to support the Gaganyaan programme. ISRO will collaborate extensively with national agencies, laboratories, academia and industry to accomplish the Gaganyaan programme objectives,” said the Government in a statement.

The total fund requirement for the Gaganyaan programme is within Rs 10,000 crore which includes cost of technology development, flight hardware realisation and essential infrastructure elements. Two unmanned flights and one manned flight will be undertaken as part of Gaganyaan programme.

Gaganyaan programme will be a national effort in collaboration with industry, academia and other scientific agencies and laboratories as stake holders along with ISRO. ISRO will be responsible for realising the flight hardware through industry.

National agencies, laboratories and academia will participate in crew training, human life science technology development initiatives as well as design reviews. First human space flight demonstration is targeted to be completed within 40 months from the date of sanction. Prior to this, two unmanned flights in full complement will be carried out to gain confidence on the technology and mission management aspects, said the statement. Read more posts…